The invention relates to a gate valve comprising a body, a gate element that is movable in the body, transversally with respect to a flow path between at least two positions, a first position in which the flow path is open, and a second position in which the flow path is closed, as well as means for moving the gate body between at least said two positions; said gate body comprises a first wall element and a second wall element, and a space for the gate element left therebetween, as well as an edge part, which edge part, when bent, forms a support surface for the first wall element and the second wall element of the gate valve body; in said edge part, there is arranged a channel space, including a at least one opening, preferably several openings, which channel part opens into the space left between the first wall element and the second wall element for conducting medium into said space.
From the publication WO2007/135237 A1, there is known a gate valve according to the object of the invention. In known arrangements, the gate valve body is either welded, in which case the edge part is welded to the wall elements, or there is used a special edge profile, including a channel part and a support part, to which side walls there are fastened fastening means. Both of these solutions may bring forth problems with the sealing of the valve body. High requirements are set for the quality of the welding, in order to make the joint leak-proof. A special profile edge part, where the side walls are fastened to the profile support part, may require extra sealing. On the other hand, a special profile is fairly expensive. In addition, dirt may in some embodiments cause problems of hygiene, when dirt has access into the joint between the walls and the edge profile. Various different valve structures have been used in an attempt to solve hygiene-related problems. Generally these have, however, been complicated and thus resulted in arrangements with high expenses.
An object of the present invention is to achieve a totally new arrangement for a gate valve with which the drawbacks of known solutions are avoided. Another object of the invention is to achieve a valve structure, the processability of which is good and which also is easy from the viewpoint of assembly. A further object of the invention is to achieve a sufficiently good arrangement with respect to tight sealing.